PSV celebrates victory, Man United feels defeat in 0-0 Champions League draw

Boereeeeeen …

Boereeeeeen …

Boereeeeeen …

The PSV fans felt right at home at Old Trafford on Wednesday, loudly and proudly chanting the nickname for their beloved club – boeren is Dutch for farmers or peasants, for Eindhoven's provincial geography.

Their plucky underdogs were about to gain their fourth point in two games against mighty Manchester United this season, after winning 2-1 at home on Sept. 15.

After a game that felt like a fitful nap, the final score was 0-0. United's Anthony Martial had a decent chance in the first half, but, like several of his peers, was denied by PSV goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet. Jesse Lingard skied a promising look from by the penalty spot. And at the other end, the enthralling Jorrit Hendrix, whose fleeing hairline belies his 20 years of age, bamboozled United to create his own chance.

And that, well, was pretty much it. PSV probably had the better of the possession in the final third in the second half. But there would be no goals. Only boos from the United fans after the final whistle, some of whom had left early – and not to beat Thanksgiving traffic, since that isn't a thing in Manchester.

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The score line was noteworthy for several reasons.

Firstly, any time a club from the Netherlands manages to really compete with a major team from one of soccer's elite domestic competitions, it's something of a miracle. While the Dutch big three of PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord have won 11 major European trophies between them, the chasm between Europe's big leagues and those left behind after the 1995 Bosman Ruling has grown so vast that they can't reasonably be expected to hold their own against the big boys anymore.

There is no significant TV money in the Netherlands, the driver of most any successful league. Sponsorship and merchandise sales are a fraction of those elsewhere. There are no sugar daddies, like the ones propping up clubs in Eastern Europe and Russia – to say nothing of the juggernauts that don't especially need the investment but get it anyway. There exist no convoluted third-party ownership structures like those that allow Portugal's historic clubs to do well continentally, even if they are essentially run by investment firms and agents.

Lately, the Dutch even haven't been good at their historical saving grace: developing world-class talent. That well is running dry, too. Especially as compared to the prodigies bursting out of the pipeline run by their smaller Southerly neighbors, Belgium.

So a young, mostly Dutch PSV side winning a two-game series against United in spite of, as usual, losing its three best players over the summer – Karim Rekik to Olympique Marseille; Georginio Wijnaldum to Newcastle United; and, ahem, Memphis to Man U – is quite the feat.

Secondly, the dropped points complicate United's task of qualifying for the knockout stages significantly. While the Mancunians still sit second in Group B with eight points, they travel to leaders Wolfsburg in two weeks. PSV, meanwhile, only trail them by a point and if they beat a fetid CSKA Moscow at home, they could leap United should the latter fail to win.

But most of all, the outcome was a continuation of United's offensive failings more than it was PSV's accomplishment.

It was yet another shutout at both ends for United. The Red Devils have played nine times since Oct. 17, and in that time, they have conceded just twice, posting seven clean sheets. But they themselves have also been shut out five times over that span. This stout defending and sterile attacking has produced four 0-0 scores, one of which – in the League Cup against second-tier Middlesbrough – lasted through extra time.

United once again looked totally flat and feckless on Wednesday, deploying two holding midfielders and failing to source any creativity or spark. Its soccer moved slowly, displaying no signs at all that a breakout from this slump of stodginess is imminent. The Dutch marking of Wayne Rooney was so effective he frequently had to drop back into his own defense to get a touch of the ball.

There is irony here. United's manager, Louis van Gaal, is one of the men who made Dutch soccer famous for its beautiful attacks. He built world beaters with Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, teams that perfected the art of slicing your opponents to pieces with movement and incisive final passes.

But at this late stage in his career – he claims, as he has several times, that this will be his final job – Van Gaal has become a defensive specialist. He got a band of young, defensively challenged Dutchmen to the World Cup semifinals by letting his few veterans Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie conjure up the last fumes of fading magic to get the goals they needed on the counterattack.

His United, however, has no such difference-makers. Or none who can be relied upon to deliver weekly, anyway. And so when Van Gaal's men defend but can't get the requisite points at the other end, it all falls apart and appears very stale. Still, United's players spoke to the TV cameras about breaking down their opponents but simply missing the chances after the game. But that just wasn't so.

PSV manager Phillip Cocu had a better handle on what had transpired. "When the game went on and they couldn't score the goal, they weren't so dominant," he told reporters. "They couldn't find a solution."

Van Gaal, in his still heavily accented English, was typically succinct about what he had witnessed, about his team's failings. "In the first half it was average and in the second half it didn't improve, despite all the changes I made," he told the press.

And so the fans of regal Manchester United booed their soccer royalty or walked out. And the traveling PSV fans hollered for their peasants.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.